March 15, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse head coach Pat Cullinan welcomes back seven starters and an experienced squad in 2007 as the Hawks look to improve on last season's fourth-place finish in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Cullinan's charges have shown improvement over his first two seasons at the helm, and the 2006 MAAC Coach of the Year has no reason to expect this trend to change.

The Hawks will be led by three captains in 2007. Senior midfielder Alex McColough, senior attacker Mike O'Neill, and junior defenseman Pat Maxey will fill the crucial leadership roles vacated by the graduation of All-MAAC Second Team selections Andrew Four and Keegan Wilkinson. O'Neill, a Second Team honoree last season, has been named to the Preseason All-MAAC squad by the league's coaches.

The Hawk attack should be a fearsome one, as the squad returns five of its top seven scorers from 2006. O'Neill was second on the team with 31 points (19 goals, 12 assists), and he should be able to improve on those numbers this season after recovering from an injury that sidelined him for last season's final three games. Junior attacker Steve Varga also returns, looking to follow up on his 27-goal performance in 2006 with another solid campaign. McColough, the fourth Hawk named to the All-MAAC Second Team, added 25 points of his own (16G, 9A), while junior midfielder Steve O'Brien (7G, 9A) and sophomore attack Alex Lopes (6G, 4A) round out the quintet.

Sophomore midfielder Ryan Tessler is the top returning face-off man, winning 41 draws in 2006. Midfielder Zach Charles appeared in 13 games last season, and is one of just five seniors/graduate students on the roster. Adding depth to the Hawk rotation will be junior attackmen Sean Kelly and Patrick McEvoy as well as sophomore attacker Chris O'Neill.

Defensively, the Hawks have been a stingy bunch under Cullinan's tutelage, and that shouldn't change during the 2007 season. Returning to the lineup after a year studying abroad will be senior Kyle Hofstaedter. Hofstaedter participated in the 2006 World Lacrosse Championships, playing for the Netherlands. He will be joined on the Hawk backline by Maxey, the junior co-captain. Maxey started all 15 games for the Hawks in 2006, and was second on the team with 32 ground balls. Also returning is sophomore Pat Williams, who started 12 games and picked up 26 ground balls.

Sophomore defenseman Tom Wengenosky played in 10 games last season, starting eight, and will add size and strength to the defensive corps. In goal, the Hawks return sophomore Erik Hotaling. Hotaling started all 15 games between the pipes for SJU and set a single-season school record with a goals-against average of 8.06 for the year. He also led the squad with 38 ground balls. Hotaling was rewarded for his performance when he was the lone Hawk named to the All-MAAC First Team.

This season, Saint Joseph's will face four high-profile opponents in the non-conference portion of its schedule. The Hawks will open with back-to-back road tilts against perennial powers Delaware and Navy. SJU will also travel to Durham, NC to take on Duke, a team ranked sixth in the Inside Lacrosse preseason poll. The schedule concludes with a trip to State College, PA for a matchup with another top-notch squad, Penn State. The non-conference schedule also features a home game with Drexel and road games at Quinnipiac, Villanova, and Lehigh. During the conference slate, the Hawks will host Manhattan, Marist, VMI, and Wagner while traveling to Providence, Canisius, Mount St. Mary's, and Siena.